captioning sponsored by macneil/lehrer productions >> woodruff: two key states are up for grabs today as voters head to the polls in the michigan and arizona republican primaries. good evening. i'm judy woodruff. >> ifill: and i'm gwen ifill. on the newshour tonight, we get the latest at what's turning out to be a dead heat in michigan from bill ballenger, and analysis from mark shields and david brooks. >> woodruff: then, ray suarez looks at the new york city police department's surveillance of muslim neighborhoods across the northeast in the wake of 9/11. >> ifill: from ethiopia, we look at the battle over land and water between relocated farmers

and the government. >> this country is a country that has suffered food insecurity and famine and yet gives out these huge land resources. >> woodruff: we talk with marcia coyle about today's arguments at the supreme court on whether multinational corporatns can be held reonsible for human rights violations. >> ifill: and jeffrey brown talks with jason moran, the pianist, composer, and new musical adviser for jazz at the kennedy center for the performing arts washington. >> improvisation of music and jazz kind of forces us to focus. it forces us to have an imagination. >> woodruff: that's all ahead on tonight's newshour. major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by:

moving our economy for 160 years. bnsf, the engine that connects us. and by the alfred p. sloan foundation. supporting science, technology, and improved economic performance and financial liracyn th21st century. and with the ongoing support of these institutions and foundations. and... this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> ifill: this was primary day in arizona and michigan, with 59 republican delegates at stake. mitt romney and rick santorum

were the main contenders, and tensions were high, especially in michigan. the romney campaign went into the day struggling to hold off what has turned out to be an aggressive and heated challenge from rick santorum in romney's native state. in the final days before today's open primary, the santorum campaign has staked its claim in michigan even using automated robo-calls to get democratic crossover votes. >> michigan democratsan vote in the republican primary on tuesday. why is it so important? romney's supporting the bailouts for his wall street billionaire buddies but opposed the auto bailouts. that was a slap in the face to every michigan worker. and we're not going to let romney get away with it. >> ifill: as polls showed an election day dead heat, romney accused santorum of using dirty tricks to win. >> it's very easy to excite the base with incendiary comments.

we've seen throughout the campaign that if you're willing to say really outrageous things that are accuse tiff and attacking president obama that yore going to jump up in the polls. you know, i'm not willing to light my hair on fire to try and get support. i am who i am. >> ifill: left unmentioned in santorum calls the former pennsylvania senators opposed all bailouts. santorum campaigning in ohio where voters go to the polls next week defended his efforts to woo democrats as an appeal to working class values. >> it's a message that is playing well. hopefully very well today in michigan. ( applause ) and it's a message that we're selling to not just republicans but republicans and democrats, reagan democrats. who are the key for us winning ohio and pennsylvania and michigan back in the day when ronald reagan represented a republican party that stood for all of the values that made this country great.

>> it is good to be with some auto workers today. >> ifill: president obama indirectly joined the fray today speaking in washington to a united auto workers union meeting that white house officials insisted was not a campaign appearance. washingt had little choice, he said, but to intervene to save the stumbling auto industry. >> the other option was to do absolutely nothing. and let these companies fail. and he will recall there were some politicians who said we should do that. (crowd booing) some even said we should let detroit go bankrupt. (boo ( you have folks saying the real problem what we disagreed with was the workers. they all made out like bandits. saving the auto indusy was just about paying back the unions. really? i mean, even by the standards of this town, that's a low to you know what.

>> ifill: voters also cast ballots today in arizona where the latest polls show romney well ahead. two other republican hopefuls, newt gingrich and ron paul, left the michigan fight to romney and santorum. moving ahead to georgia and virginia. the candidates were still sparring the candidates were still sparring as voterwent to the polls today in michigan, where the neck-and-neck race presents a special challenge for native son mitt romney. here to handicap the day's contest there is bill ballenger, editor of "inside michigan politics." he joins us from east lansing. when we talked about this a couple of weeks ago, romney still seemed to have an advantage. how did it get this tight? >> mitt romney closed the gap, seemed to be pulling ahead at the end last week. then all of a sudden his momentum was arrested over the weekend. now it's a dead heat. it's a jump ball. anybody could win the race. >> ifill: you say all of a sudden his momentum was rested. was it arrested because santorum targeted him or because of something that he did that he lost support?

>> i don't think he did anything specific to damage himself. yes, there were a few gaffes and missteps that have been replicated in the news media nationally. but i don't think they hurt him that much. for that matter, some of santorum's statements, as you know, got a lot of national publicity like his remarks about the president having a phony theology and anybody who wants to go to college is a snob. guess what? that probably helped rick santorum with the people who are voting the republican primary today in michigan. >> ifill: those weren't necessarily gaffe. it's not a gaffe if it works. tell me about this crossover vote ploy or effort or strategy that is being employed. this idea that michigan voters who don't have to be registered with one particular party to participate in any primary can show up and throw something in the works at the last minute if they want. >> that's absolutely right. anybody can go in and vote in either party's primary today. i think what was wrong, if

"wrong" is the right word, with the santorum automated phone calls is they were disingenuous in the sense that they tried to make it sound like these were democrats calling democratic voters and urging them to cross over and vote in the republican primary. on the grounds that mitt romney should be punished for turning his back on the domestic auto industry in michigan. when, in fact, rick santorum himself has exactly the same position on that particular issue as mitt romney. so it was hypocritical. it was disingenuous and it was a dirty trick. >> ifill: has this idea of appealing to the other party to work for you, has this worked in michigan in the past? >> it has. in 2000. a famous election. many democrats and independents crossed over and voted the republican primary for john mccain. they had a couple of reasons for doing that. principal among them being that john mccain was a more moderate candidate than george

w. bush. and john mccain killed george bush among the independents and democrats in voting in 2000, even though gege bush won by about a 2-to-1 margin over john mccain among republicans. so the overall result, mccain won michigan. i think santorum would like to see that happen again today. the only difference is really when you stop and think about it philosophically there's no reason democrats would really be attracted to rick santorum. >> ifill: how much has mitt romney staked on this win in michigan, his native state and how much hassan tore up spent relatively in terms of time and treasure? >> it looks likeomney has outspent santorum about 2-to-1. that sounds like a lot. but guess what. it's not as much as 10-to-1 and 20-to-1 which is about the margin in spending superiority romney had over santorum in all these previous states. santorum kept himself in the race by being able to spend

enough to make himself competitive. and then he's relying on the tea partys and the ground game he's mustered to try and put it altogether in one big package today and win the election. >> ifill: it's fair to say there is a very nservative electorate in michigan to make a difference for rick santorum at this point? >> i think so. almost half the voters in michigan today are estimated to be strongly supportive of the tea party. that's what they say. and these people have generally speaking been strongly supportive of rick santorum. vis-a-vis mitt romney in all the polls that have been taken the last couple of weeks. >> ifill: we always watch the late deciders, the people who have not told pollsters which way they're going to go until the st moment. any sen of wherethey're going today? >> i think there's a feeling that if you haven't decided to vote for mitt romney by now, you're probably not going to. unless maybe there's a back lash today here in michigan

against the news of the santorum robo-calls. that could be a decider. but we'll have to do the exit polls and find out. >> ifill: bill ballenger of inside michigan politics, thanks so much. >> thank you, gwen. >> woodruff: and to the analysis of shields and brooks, syndicated columnist mark shields and "new york times" columnist david brooks. david, remind us why these primaries tonight especially michigan are so important. >> well, michigan is mitt romney's home state. or at least one of his 20 home states. that's crucial. it's the first time they've gone toe to toe, rick santorum and mitt romney. the first time since iowa we don't know who is going to win. the polls have been very accurate this year. this they have as a dead heat. if mitt romney loses in michigan, a wave of anxiety will sweep through the republican party such as you have not seen. it's been building week after week after week but if he loses, then it will be, oh, he's got shake up his campaign. we've got to go to get chris christie out of wherever he

is. it will have a psychic effect. people will look to super tuesday as an even more cataclysmic risk for him. >> woodruff: mark, romney was already anticipating that today taking responsibility for any mistakes that have happened. mark, no chance that we are overstating the importance of michigan? >> i think psychologically for republicans, judy, michigan is enormously important. it's important by itself. it's the first major industrial state where the vote have go to the polls. i mean, think about it. we've had small states, iowa, new hampshire, deep south state in south carolina and sort of a sun belt mega state in florida. but now we're into the industrial belt of the country. and i agree with david that obviously because it is mitt romney's hometown and home state, the state of birth, where his father was governor, an enormously popular figure that it does... it becomes more important. a loss here is seen as a blow.

especially after santorum had seemed to slip and slipped in the national polls and romney had moved. so there will be questions and self doubt about what did happen if it does happen. >> woodruff: and, david, when we hear romney today again taking some responsibility saying if i were willing to make incendiary comments, he said if i were to light my hair on fire, i might be doing better. what about that? >> that's another mistake. you don't say, oh, these republican voters are so crazy if i would light my hair on fire they would beimpressed. politicians should never use the word the base. it deny greats the voters. it's a sign of his awkwardness. i have a lot of great friends who are nascar owners. there's been a constant stream of mini-gaffes. i personally don't think that's it though. i think romney is a decent candidate. he has these gaffes. i don't think it's fundamentally a problem with him. i think it's partly a problem with the electorate.

the republican electorate wants somebody true blue. they're not looking at someone who they think of another dole. i think that's a mistake. they're looking for a mistake. second as mark indicates in these states, the michigans, the ohios they're looking for working class social conservatives and rick santorum is tailor made. >> woodruff: what about this tactic on the part of the santorum campaign running these so-called robo-calls urging democrats to vote against romney. we heard bill ballenger say that it's hypocritical. is it a dirty trick like romney says? >>. >> it's not a dirty trick because you're doing it out in the open. evybodcan e it. dirty tricks are usually done fur tively at 3:00 in the morning. i think it's not kosher or however you want to put it, judy. as democrats i'd simply ask, do you want republicans picking your presidential nominee? and i think the answer is no.

i mean you don't like the other party meddling. they're not coming in because it could be said in 2000 that some democratic voters really were attracted and found john mccain enormously appealing. that's why they did vote in the michig primary but the only reason to vote for rick santorum if you're a democrat is because you think that rick santorum is a weaker candidate against barack obama than is mitt romney. i think in that sense, his doing it sort of corrupts the process, dilutes the impact of republican voters at a time when, if anything, he's on the rise with republican voters. the most interesting thing that bill ballenger said, he said many interesting things, but e one that uck with m was that over half the voters today were identifying or half were identifying as tea party members. in ohio where i am right now, fewer than one quarter of republicans voters identify

themselves as tea party supporters. san tore many is running up the score with them right now in all surveys here. if that's the case, i mean, it's a problem for the republicans going in to the fall. if they're going to have their decision made by an electorate where half of them identify as tea party members. >> woodruff: just quickly and this is a hypothetical, david, but if santorum is le to pull this out tonight and it is partly due to democratic votes, does that somehow diminish the meaning? >> i don't think so. i'm a little dubious the robo- calls work for anything at this stage. people are robo-called out. i'm dubious that people will go to the other primary to drive over, stand in line and vote unless we have an ideological connection with the canned dade. i doubt it's having any effect whether it's kosher or not. >> woodruff: last quick question to you both. president obama telling the u.a.w. today that the republicans are in essence, he's saying the republicans were wrong to blame the union members for what happened to

the auto industry. >> he's got a good case, i think. you know, if you go back and look his first term and the way he talks about it, the stimulus package, health care is down here but the auto bailout is up here. he's very proud of that. it's popular now. what's striking is that as the president is saying, never on defense. i'm going to run all year. i'm not waiting for these guys to shut up. i'm going to run, run, run. that's what he's doing. >> woodruff: in a few words what about the president's tactic today? >> the president obvusl wants talk... he'd like the michigan primary to go on on the republican side for another three weeks because this is a rare and undiminished success, undiluted success of the obama economic program. this is the auto rescue. and it's seen that way increasingly by voters. he likes the fact that republicans candidates are all on the other side antrum pets the fact that they're on the other side. i think he'd like to keep that in the public consciousness just as prominently and long as he can. >> woodruff: on this big

primary day, thank you both. shies, david brooks. >> ifill: still to come on the newshour, american muslims under surveillance; a battle over land and water in ethiopia; human rights groups versus multinational corporations; and jazz pianist and composer jason moran. but first, with the other news of the day, here's hari sreenivasan. >> sreenivasan: the death toll rose to three today, in the shootings at a suburban cleveland high school. hospital officials confirmed two more teenagers had died of wounds from monday's attack. the alleged shooter, a student named t.j. lane, had his first appearance in juvenile court. later, a prosecutor said lane is "someone who is not well." wall street's long climb back from the depths of recession has reached a new milestone. the dow jones industrial average finished above 13,000 for the first time since may of 2008. it gained more than 23 points on the day, to close at 13,005. the nasdaq rose 20 points to close at 2986. in pakistan, gunmen in military uniforms stopped a convoy of buses, and killed 16 shiite passengers.

it happened in the small village of harban mala in a remote region some 200 miles north of the capital, islamabad. officials said the victims were told to get off the bus, and then gunned down on the roadside. the pakistani taliban, a sunni militant group, claimed responsibility. the syrian army kept up its fierce bombardment of the city of homs today. at the same time, rebels managed to get a wounded british journalist, paul conroy, to safety. they said 13 syrians died in the effort to smuggle him into lebanon. we have a report on the ongoing assault on homs, and the world's response, narrated by jonathan miller of independent television news. >> reporter: the images are shocking. this little boy is alive. he looks like an earthquake victim but as man made disaster. his home hit by a rocket. the boy is disabled. his legs are paralyzed. he couldn't run. the doctor, one of the humanitarian heroes, appealed again for help, for being

butchered he says. today at the u.n. human rights council in geneva the onslaught branded a crime against humanity. >> more than at any other time, those committing aatrocities in syria have to understand that the international community will not stand by and watch this carnage and that their decisions and the actions they take today ultimately will not go unpunished. >> reporter: this person called for an immediate cease-fire to allow help into homs. the syrian ambassador then took the floor lambasting members of the council for promoting terrorism and for prolonging the crisis in his country. then he stormed out. the united states later said he demonstrated the delusional nature of the regime of assad. >> sreenivasab n: in washington, secretary of state hillary

clinton told a senate hearing that the syrian president could be classified a war criminal, but she also warned that might make it harder to get rid of him. >> i think people have been putting forth the argument, but i also think that from long experience, that can complicate a resolution of a difficult, complex situation because it limits options to persuade leaders, perhaps to step down from power. >> sreenivasan: meanwhile, the president of tunisia said he is ready to offer asylum for assad in a bid to help end the conflict. pentagon officials acknowledged today that partial, unidentified remains of some 9/11 victims were incinerated and sent to a landfill. the finding came in a larger report on the mishandling of remains at the military mortuary in dover, delaware. the 9/11 remains came from the hijacked airliner that struck the pentagon, and another that crashed in pennsylvania. the justice department has charged a texas doctor and six others with bilking medicaid and medicare out of $375 million. indictments unsealed today said they allegedly submitted thousands of false claims for

home health services in some cases, for homeless people. health care fraud costs the federal government at least $60 billion a year. the government of japan downplayed the disaster at the fukushima nuclear plant after the earthquake and tsunami last march. an independent report released today said officials withheld the risks of reactor meltdowns at the plant. at the same time, it said, they were secretly discussing mass evacuations, reaching as far away as tokyo. the u.s. senates losg republican veteran olympia snowe of maine. she confirmed today she will not seek reelection to a fourth term. snowe was a well-known moderate who supported health care reform, among other issues. in a statement, she said she's tired of what she called "my- way-or-the-highway ideologies" in congress. those are some of the day's major stories. now, back to gwen. >> ifill: next, more details emerge about a program aimed at preventing terrorism, but which also raises questions about civil liberties. ray suarez has our story.

>> suarez: the story has been emerging since last summer. new york city police began extensively monitoring muslims in the city after 9/11. the operation revealed by the associated press triggered immediate criticism from civil rights groups. >> at the end of the day it is pure and simple, a rogue domestic surveillance operation. that's a matter of serious concern to us. >> suarez: but new york city's police commissioner, ray kelly, insisted last year the surveillance is is necessary and legal. >> we're doing what we believe we have to do to proct the city. we have many many lawyers in our employ. we see ourselves as very conscious and aware of civil liberties. we know that there's always going to be scrutiny. there's always going to be some tension between the police department and so-called civil liberties groups. >> suarez: the program used undercover police officers and recruited muslim informants to keep watch.

mayor michael bloomberg insisted last december the operation was not about racial profiling. >> the city's police department has worked very hard to bring crime down and prevent terrorism. we've done it in a way that is consistent with making sure that we obey the law and don't target anybody. >> suarez: but muslim activists in the city say surveillance is corrosive and counterproductive. >> it creates mistrust amongst people within their own communities. it also hinders what people do in their daily lives. they don't want to go to the same coffee shops or even pray at the mosques. what it does is creates mistrust between us and law enforcement which undermines public safety for all new yorkers. >> suarez: the operation extended beyond new york city limits. this apartment building in new bruins wick, new jersey, served as an nypd command center for surveillance throughout that state. new jersey governor chris christie, his state's former attorney general said the

whole operation was news to him. >> if i was briefed, i don't remember it. nypd don't really have jurisdiction here. >> suarez: just yesterday the a.p.revealed white house funding helped purchase cars and compute used in the rveillance effort. >> we take a closer look at this story now with one of the two reporters who initially reported on the surveillance program back in august for the associated press and has continued to follow the story. matt, you've called the nypd one of america's most aggressive domestic intelligence agencies. what was the new york city police department doing? >> well, they had domestic intelligence programs that go far beyond what we would have expected pre-9/11 to see from any police department in many ways operate that the federal government, the f.b.i. simply can't. they have a program called the demographics unit which the nypd originally denied existed.

plains clothes officer search that often arab officers who will go out into muslim neighborhoods and they are called rakers. they're going to rake the coals looking for hot spots meaning they're going to go out and they're going to take pictures of mosques. they're going to take pictures of all the muslim businesses in the area. they're going to go into the muslim cafes or bars and they're going to eavesdrop and listen to people's conversations, maybe write down the owner'seth indianapolis at this timey. definitely write down the ethnicity. those goes in police reports. we've seen them in many neighborhoods, egyptians, moroccans, albanians, they are building theseiles of where muslims live, eat, shop, pray, where they watch sports. where they go to internet cafes. it's just an incredible process by which they're bringing in information about the muslims. >> suarez: in this kind of surveillance, in these ongoing investigations, was there firstestaish probable cause, the evidence of an ongoing commission of a crime,

some reason to believe that there was a crime going on or were they just watching? >> in the demographics unit, these are the undercover, the plain clothed officers, their reports mention no evidence of crimes. i think we found one evidence, one report that said here's a store that appears to stel counterfeit dvds. demographics unit is just raking the coals, building these databases. there are the informants, the mosque crawlers who go out into the mosques and are investigating, you know, one, they're investigating if there is a lead. they're following it. but they're also there just serving as listening posts inside the mosques. we've seen documents where the informants or the undercover officers inside the mosques are reporting back on even innocuous things that imams are saying at friday prayers. they're reporting back the imam said we should hold a protest about the danish cartoons, a nonviolent protest. i want everybody to maybe write a letter to a politician.

they send police reports up to ray kelly. we've seen evidence of them using surveillance cameras, writing down license plates of people coming to and from mosques. i mean it's just... it really is surprising and really shows the transition and the transformation of the nypd. >> suarez: how did this get started? over the years imams have told this program that they've been contacted openly by the f.b.i., asked for cooperation which they often gave. did the new york city police department determine that there was no other way to get the kind of information they were looking for? >> yeah. i mean in some of the ways the demographics unit is built on the idea that you're going to learn more if you go in covertly. you know, you're going to be able to take a more honest pulse of the community if you go in overtly. the idea is if you create these reports, let's say, you know, three years from now there's a report that, you know, from the c.i.a. that says, hey, there's an egyptian. he just came to the united states. maybe he's going to attack new york. we don't know. the nypd can go to the

egyptian folder, pull it off. see all the egyptians are likely to go, where they're likely to go out to dinner or pray. maybe they've collected phone numbers of egyptians who have rooms to rent. they have that all at their fingertips. that's the reasoning behind it. >> suarez: didn't your reporting turn up people who thought they were already cooperating with the authorities, who it turned out were also under undercover surveillance? >> we found several instances of imams who partnered with the nypd who stood shoulder to shoulder with mayor bloomberg who have been... who have decried terrorism and who have been held up as allies in the war against terrorism in new york city. we found documents showing they had undercover officers or informants assigned directly to them. >> suarez: there are rules that govern domestic spying that apply to the f.b.i. and the c.i.a.. do they apply to the new york city police snept was the nypd living within the rules?

>> legally, that's to be determined. the police department operates under federal... or basically a court order and a longstanding civil rights lawsuit. lawyers in that case say these documents we've obtained show they've gone beyond that. the police department said absolutely not. we've stayed within the four corners of that. what's interesting and what's been fascinating the more people we talk to is we've never really approached this as a legal issue. when you look at the big issues post 9/11 in the united states, whether it's water boarding, wire tapping, surveillance, gitmo, rendition, all of those have been legal. i mean, nobody is saying, nobody is going to jail for those programs. these programs might be legal. we've actually never said, this is illegal. they're violating the law. but i mean it certainly is worth having this conversation just like it's been worth having those conversations. what's interesting about the nypd is they have almost no oversight. the city council is not aware of the programs that are going on. congress is not aware of

what's going on. the attorney general has said basically it doesn't have the ability to investigate. the white house said yesterday, yes, our money is being used here but we're just a policy office. we don't actually have operational control. you know, these decisions are largely kept in house at the nypd and with mayor bloomberg. >> suarez: we'll continue this conversation online. thanks for joining us. >> thanks so much for having me. >> woodruff: now, a struggle over land in western ethiopia that pits village farmers against the government and land investors. tonight's story is part of a multimedia project that looks at the challenge of feeding the world, in a time of social and environmental change. it's a newshour partnership with the center for investigative reporting, homelands productions, and american public media's marketplace. the project is called "food for nine llion." tonight's correspondent is cassandra herrman.

>> reporter: the people of the gambela region have lived in scattered settlements like this for centuries, growing maize and farming closer to the river in the dry season. but last yar at the ethiopian government launched a program called villagization. officials told the people here they would be relocated to areas with better access to clean water health, and education. but this woman says they were forced to move under false pretenses. >> when we left our farm, our crops were ready for harvest but they told us to leave them in the field, that we would find plenty of corn and other food in the new place we were moving. but they don't give you enough food to fill you up. they give you food in a small container but it can't even feed a family for a day. >> reporter: the plight of the people is at the heart of a

complex battle over land ownership and water rights. between farmers, the government, and foreign investors. it's a battle that is being fought in many african countries. the ethiopian government officially owns title to all the land here but farmers have the right to use it. the government calls this land abandoned because it's so sparsely populated. but the people say they need it. some for grazing, some to lay fall oh, and that it's the best farmland in the country. >> moving us to a new village might be good for the government but not for us. it's not good to move a person from the land they have lived on for generations. maybe the government thinks we are not worthy enough to live on such beautiful land and they want to have it. >> reporter: over the next two years, 1.5 million people in four regions of oath yop i

can't will be relocated. the government insists that the villagization program is voluntary but human rights watch says the people a being frced to move so the government can lease the land to investors. the rights group recently documented cases of violence and arbitrary arrest. >> very emotional. land is our identity. >> reporter: the leader was a voice of resistance against villagization. fearing for his live, he fled ethiopia and now lives in exile in neighboring kenya. >> when i see my village, very small in the face of the big population coming in, i see a big threat. we need to fight for the future of our children. >> reporter: he says it's not just his people's land that is at stake. gambela, with several rivers and a sizable dam, is rich in water resources. water is the driving force

behind many agricultural deals on the african continent. this rice farm is owned by a saudi sheik and is on land at the... on land that the people consider theirs. according to a company, when completed tis rice farm will be the largest in africa. >> to put it on the rice map of the world. we like to export about one million tons of rice. we expect about billion dollars of income for the country. >> reporter: in many places in the world water is becoming a scarce resource. saudi stars rice will go to gulf nations no longer able to irrigate their own crops. to attract investors to this area of the nile river basin, the ethiopian government puts fe if any restrictions on water usage in its contracts with foreign companies. saudi star will spend $2.5 billion on the rice farm. on clearing forests, on their

fleet of new tractors and combines and on extra experts like this project director. >> this project can really bring a revolution (inaudible) the social ambitions of the people around. >>eporter: but ethiopians don't typically eat rice and many question the move to grow crops for export when ethiopia and the horn of africa have a long history of pefdic hunger caused by war and weather problems. >> this country is a country that has suffered food insecurity and famine. and yet gives out huge land resources to foreign capital. >> reporter: this man is a food policy expert with the forum for social studies. he says making sure people have access to food shou be the government's prrit >> there is no provision in

any of the contracts signed by the government and investors, there's no provision for food security, local food security at all. if there are people who are starving there, it's not their concern. >> reporter: in the capital, the government says the way to ensure people can afford food is to provide jobs through attracting investment and foreign currency. at the ministry of agriculture, director of investment says that as a country of farmers, ethiopia needs agricultural exports in order to pay for importing necessary items. >> to have the equipment and to have... we are importing everything. >> reporter: but in gambela, the people say they are not seeing the benefits of the country's investment strategy. while companies like saudi star now have access to much of the region's best land and

water, the leader of this village says they've been moved to drierreas where farming is more difficult. >> if they take all the water from the small river, the river will dry up. then where would we get water? i heard also they are planning to take water from the lake a few kilometers from here. >> reporter: the lake he is referring to is a dam. saudi star is close to finishing an 18-mile canal from the dam to irrigate their rice fields. >> if i knew they were moving me so they could sell my land, i would have refused to leave so they could kille and bury me on my own land. that would have been better. >> reporter: many of the relocated kmuns could face endemic hunger as early as next year according to human rights watch. most are still waiting for farms or seed. more than 12 million ethiopians are currently in need of food assistance. the future for groups like these people grows

increasingly uncertain as the global land rush continues. not just in ethiopia but in dozens of countries across the african continent. >> woodruff: you can find the first >> woodruff: you can find the first two reports in this series at the food-for-nine-billion- web site. there's a link to it on newshour.pbs.org. >> ifill: at the u.s. supreme court today, justices heard arguments on a pair of international human rights cases. at issue is whether corporations and groups can be sued in american courts for alleged involvement in abuses overseas. the justices' decision could have big implications for corporate liability aroundhe gle. marcia coyle of the "national law journal" was in the courtroom for the arguments, and joins us to explain. . >> we're talking two cases today with percolated up to the court. one of a two century old statute and one of a two decade old statute. >> exactly. two separate arguments.

two different federal laws but sharing a common question of whether you can get corporate liability when corporations commit or are complicit in human rights violations. >> ifill: that's an interesting distinction you just made. commit or are complicit. are we talking aut american corporations which themselves violated people's human rights or they stood by while the countries with which they did business did? >> either they actually were perpetrators or they aided and abetted, say, in one of the cases we heard today, the nigerian military. the first case involves the alien tort statute which you pointed out is old. it was enacted in 1789. the suit that was brought to the court was brought by a group of nigerians who either themselves were tortured or had family members who were tortured and killed when they were peacefully protesting oil drilling in a particular region of nigeria.

they brought their suit against three oil companies and a lower court found that there was no corporate liability in international law. so their suit could not go forward. this is a complicated area, gwen. but the arguments today boiled down to this. on this nigerian family side, their lawyer argues that international law, you look to international law to determine what actions, what kind of conduct violates the law of nations. but international law leads to each nation's own domestic law. who can be held liable? the family's lawyer and the united states here, the deputy solicitor general of the united states argueed that under u.s. domestic law, torts like this, actions for injuries, damages for these injuries has always held that corporations are potentiall liable parties.

>> ifill: that was the case in the second case as well which involved torture? >> that was in the first case. and i should add that there was another argument. and a very vigorous argument by the oil company's attorney kathleen sullivan that you look to international law to answer both questions. the justices seemed more incline to follow that argument than the argument of the united states and the families. in the second case, the torture victim protection act. that gives an action to citizens in the united states as we as n-citizens for damages against an individual. that word "individual" is very important here. who tortures or kills under the color of law of a foreign nation. this argument focused on the meaning of the word "individual." the claim here was brought by the family of a man who was a nationalized citizen. he was visiting the west bank with his son when he was arrested by palestinian

liberation organization.the palestinian authority. he was... there was evidence he was tortured and then he was killed. so they brought an action under this law for damages. the question was, can you hold corporations or an organization like the palestinian authority liable when the law speaks to individual? and again the justices were skeptical that you could do that. >> ifill: i was curious. were they listening? were they receptive? >> they gave the lawyer for the family here a very hard time. as justice scalia said, "individual" isn't a strange word. it's no an odd word. it's used all the time. it means individual. but the lawyer for mohammed who is the plaintiff in this case, he said that in every tort regime in the united states law, congress has always provided for corporate or organizational liability. and this law is a tort law.

he also argued that there was no good reason not to... there was no good reason toexempt corporations from here. the whole purpose of this law is compensation, deterrence, and accountability. >> ifill: now, to a non-legal mind listening to this argument about corporations liability versus individual liability sounds a lot... it sounds like it tracks a lot with other arguments we've heard from the court about whether corporations are liable, whether speech-- i'm thinking of citizens united and political spending cases-- is there any similarity in this case? >> well, there are civil rights and human rights organizations who feelhere is something a paralle he. they're saying, well, the supreme court in particular in the citizens united decision gave corporations the same rights as human beings when it comes to.... >> ifill: individuals. >> ...campaign spending. now they're saying will this supreme court recognize that

corporations just like human beings, individuals, have responsibilities as well as rights? and the responsibility here is not to violate human rights. a lot of organizations, after citizens united accused the roberts court here of being pro corporate. they're looking at this case to see if they can say that again about the roberts court, if it should find that corporations cannot be held liable for human rights violations. >> ifill: marcia coyle of the national law journal, thank you so much. >> my pleasure, gwen. >> woodruff: finally tonight, a conversation with an emerging jazz innovator who's now an important voice at one of the country's leading arts institutions. jeffrey brown has the story.

♪ >> brown: jason moran made a name for himself at an early age. that name is growing now to a wider public. last year moran was awarded a macarthur geni fellowship and recently made the artistic advisor for jazz at the kennedy center for the performing arts in washington d.c.. it's a position held for many years by the great jazz musician and educator billy taylor. jason moran joins us now. welcome to you. >> my pleasure. >> brown: why take this on? i mean you have a busy performing and recording schedule. why do you want to take a more public role. >> i feel like the arts in general in america kind of always continually need boosts. revitalization. new energy. and so when the kennedy center kind of approached me about this position, i thought this would be a fine opportunity in my current role as, say,

performer, to then branch out into a way to kind of interact with the audience on a different scale. >> brown: when you say arts need a boost and then there's jazz. you know, i mean there are certain forms. we talk a lot on this program about the sort of sometimes more marginalized forms. they seem that way. what do you think jazz's role in our culture today? >> well, you know, we can promote the abstract. i think recently i feel like it's maybe in a way that abstract becomes such a kind of like thing that is annoying. you know, that i doesn't promote thought it's all laid out and planned for us. and improvisational music and jazz really kind of forces us to focus. it forces us to have an imagination. to create our own ideas about what we're hearing. or if you go to a museum or if you go to see a choreography or a dance company you really kind of... the audience is

really making up their own decisions. i want to promote that, that people, that audiences come in as thinkers just as much as the musicians or the performers are thinkers. for me it's enticing, it's inviting. >> brown: one of the wonderful contra digs of jazz or i don't know if it's a contradiction but always strikes me is it is something so baran new. there's the improvisation. it's created in the moment. it also comes from a very long tradition. i know this is something you think a lot about because you feel tied to a part of that tradition. >> it's important. it's important for the tradition of america really that the music speaks to its history here. you know, born out of, you know, one of the more trying times of america, born out of slavery, blues and gospel and jazz come out of these freedom musics, these musics that promote thought. they promote consciousness. and they promote therapy also. not only for the musicians but for the audience that is listening. i can't tell you, i'm sure

many musicians have these stories where audience members approach them after a concert and say i came in with the worst attitude and the worst day in theorld. after hearinghis music i feel ready to address the world again. >> brown: how do you bring those together in your own work? i've read that it your first exposure where everything kind of changed. do you hold on to that even as you're creating new compositions? >> well i have to. i feel like those musicians, i mean, are kind of part of my d.n.a.. you know, from the years of listening to them, talking to musicians who knew them. studying with certain musicians like a jackie andrew hill and others. these musicians really share something very personal to them with me. andhen they ask that i take their information and apply it in a way that i've grown up to apply things. so it's a constant look back and a look forward and a look at the present too. it's what i kind of promote for my students as well at new england conservatory that they

think about not only what this kind of vast history of music is, not just jazz history but the music in general but think about where and how they got to the point where they are and how will they dissem disseminate that information? it's all up to them. >> brown: what about contemporary fms of music? one the interesting questions for jazz, classical musicians have the same thing is how do you interact with more popular forms of your day? pop music? hip hop music? it's all around there. many of your contemporaries are listening to. >> right. i mean, currently some of the best r and b groups out here are using base he canally an entire jazz band as their rhythm section. maxwell is back on the road. >> brown: it's interesting, isn't it? >> yes. the form that has kind of created this back drop to so much of great music of pop music has been really created by forward-thinking jadz musicians as well. you know, i'll listen to a lot of it. >> brown: you do?

>> i listen to a lot of hip hop and a lot of r and b. a lot of current techno and electronic because, you know, the music keeps changing. look at my 24-year-old twins and i say i wonder what they'll listen to when they're 13 or 14 when music starts to really matter. at 13 or 14 i heard monk. he put into con next all of my years of studying suzuki piano. all of a sudden hearing monk. i said this instrument isn't something that i had thought about before. >> brown: is that how you started as a child in piano? >> yes, forntedly. i say fortunately now. it was unfortunate when i was seven years old because who wants to practice piano? but my parents had me in suzuki classes with a fantastic teacher. he really taught me about the basics of the technique of the piano but also the love and the passion that would then grow. i don't know how she planted this seed. iwas amazing how she did

this. when i go back to houston to perform she's there siting in the audience still commenting on my technique. >> brown: really? was there music all around in your family? >> no. my parents were arts appreciateors. you know? and my brothers. my brothers and i were in suzuki classes. i think it's fwhig. that's what we want. that's what i want for kind of american public is that they're they're arts appreciateors. you don't have to be an artist to expose your children or yourself to it. just interact with it. maybe one of the children will catch the bug and decide that they want to create. and then promote their creativity. >> brown: jason moran, composer and now the artistic advisor for jazz at the kennedy center. thanks so much. >> thank you. >> ifill: again, the major

developments of the day. voters went to the polls in republican presidential primaries in michigan and arizona. 59 delegates are at stake. the dow jones industrials finished above 13,000 for the first time since before the recession began. 25 suspected on much line hackers in the group anonymous have been arrested in europe and south america. and to hari sreenivasan, for what's on the newshour online. hari? >> sreenivasan: you can track up-to-the-minute results from the michigan and arizona primaries in our vote 2012 map center. we'll also have video of candidates' speeches later tonight. plus you can catch more results and analysis during an updated broadcast for the west coast. watch live on our homepage at 9:00 p.m. eastern. and tonight, pbs' "frontline" will air the documentary "inside japan's nuclear disaster," an account of the impact of last year's devastating earthquake and tsunami on the fukushiima nuclear complex. here's an excerpt of what was going on the first night.

>> just along the coast, the nuclear plant was still without power. the workers had no fctiong instruments to reveal what was happening inside the reactor cores. they improvised. >> all of us who had a car or a company car were asked to get the batteries to try to restore power. >> the scavenged batteries allowed vital monitoring instruments in the reactor 1 control room to work again. just before midnight, the workers restored power to the pressure gauge. the levels caused panic. >> the pressure was going up and up. everyone thought, isn't this

dangerous? are we in trouble? >> reporter: the engineers realized the rising heat of the fuel rods in the reactor core was creating massive amounts of radioactive steam and hydrogen. the resulting pressure meant the workers could not get water on to the fuel. even worse, it meant the containment vessel might explode. a disaster that could leave parts of japan uninhabitable for decades. >> sreenivasan: "inside japan's nuclear disaster" airs tonight on pbs' "frontline." check your local listings for times. judy? >> woodruff: and that's the newshour for tonight. on wednesday, we'll look at the g.o.p. battle for delegates, what's the present count, and what's at stake on super tuesday. i'm judy woodruff. >> ifill: and i'm gwen ifill. we' see you online, and again here tomorrow evening. thank youand good night. major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by:

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